Finally–something that’s not chicken. The first pork recipe we’ll cover here is 7-26: Maple-Glazed Pork Chops.🍁
My mom was NOT a pork eater and I grew up quasi-Jewish, so there wasn’t a lot of pork being cooked in my childhood, spare the occasional ham steak or rack of ribs here and there at my dad’s request.
The key here is to make sure you use REAL maple syrup, not table syrup. Big difference.
The pork section of the book was pretty scarcely touched–this one’s no exception.
Ingredients. I had to substitute walnuts for pecans, which might have made a difference. I’m not a big nut person, so it wasn’t a huge deal to me.
Chops were boneless sirloin chops–while they were really thick, I think that helped the pork maintain some tenderness. Bay leaves were crushed instead of whole leaves–seemed to work out okay as well.
These were two very large pieces that I cut into 4 smaller pieces (what you see here).
Giving that cast iron a work out. I actually have two identical 10″ cast iron pans–I try to rotate them out every 6 months or so to keep them usable.
Pork getting some nice color on it. Higher heat would have given it even nicer color, but I didn’t want to burn my butter. Slow but steady wins the race.
Pork with the syrup and spices on it. Smelled and looked mighty tasty.
With pecans walnuts added.
And finally with bay leaves added. I had been rotating the pork around in the pan and flipping it as these were being taken–mostly trying to keep all the sides even in color, doneness, & mapleness.
Once done, I cut two of the pieces up into chunks–we were planning to eat it on top of rice in a bowl. It would have been just as nice as a chop on a plate with some potatoes or something else on the side.
Our final product. You can do the pork a little more to your liking if you like it more well-done–I like it with some pink in the very middle.
Overall–a very good recipe, but how can you go wrong with maple & pork?
Grade: A
